I own too many Axis & Allies games!

I divide my A&A stuff into two categories: sculpts and everything else.  I store the sculpts in plastic tackle boxes, which are arranged by country and sub-arranged by piece type (with further subdivisions, as applicable, for variant models and colours).  In other words, I sort my sculpts by country and shape and colour, not by the games that provided them. With every new A&A game (I own all of them, in most cases in multiple copies), I take notes on what was in each box so that I have a reasonable idea of where the sculpts in my collection came from.  The rest of the stuff – poker chips, dice and so forth – gets tossed together in other plastic storage trays, without any attempt to track its origins.  I consolidate the map boards from different games into as few of the original game boxes as possible, for simplicity of storage.  I have no plans to re-sell anything, so for me being able to reconstruct a game box’s exact original contents isn’t a consideration.

I combined all my pieces together into Plano boxes, currently painting them all to match, and I store all these boxes with boards, books, and everything else in a large plastic storage container that has a locking lid. No plan on my part to sell anything either so singular storage works much better for me.

I also go the tackle-box route– I just recently had to consolidate things to make room for my new baby (the wife has confiscated my office and I now have a smallish corner and one set of shelves).  I put the pieces in tackle-boxes by country (and divided them out all OCD-like) and reduced my games to fill the two second edition G40 boxes with all the extra stuff-- boards, references, and the like.  I got one of those binders that you can clip magazines in to hold all the rulebooks.  This helped me with controlling my E1940.2, P1940.2, 1941, Spring 1942(x2), Spring 1942, Pacific, and Revised.  It was a bit hard to break things down at first-- doing so much can be overwhelming.  However, I persevered, and it feels satisfying.

The hardest part was cutting the setup charts off the G40 unit storage bins, but I could not afford that much dead space.  The tops are now “cards,” and my wife uses the black box bottoms as drawer organizers.

If you are not selling them ever, then go for it.  Good luck.

I’d consider anything you’re never going to sell and combine the parts. Keep the rule books, placement cards, etc. in the original box(es). I’m going to go against the grain and say go ahead with your AA50 unless your going to sell which I’m never going to. Maybe keep GC, D-Day, and BoB inatct parts and all. The rest I’d combine. It makes life a lot easier playing games sometimes. A fringe bennefit  is that by mixing your pieces say during a gmae of 41 is that a new player may ask what that piece is for and opens a gateway to the other games. Just my opinion.

Another useful trick, as far as the game boxes go, is to consolidate your maps and other accessories into as few boxes as possible, and to use the leftover empty boxes for miscellaneous storage of other household stuff like books or documents that you need to keep long-term.  That way, the space in the boxes doesn’t go to waste and you get convenient storage boxes for stuff you need to store anyway.

I just keep my stuff as bought although I might add extra pieces that I have bought.  If I would mix them, I’d end up forgetting what went with what.  Also, when I buy a new one, I make a manifest of individual pieces so that I will always know just what it came with I bought it in case I add extra pieces later.  As for storage, game boxes were considered when I was working out house design:

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Big boxes such as Anniversary and '40 have thrown a small wrench into things though.

Pacific War, are the cables through the front of you shelves holding any weight? How are they attached to the shelves? How deep are the shelves into the ‘slots’ on the wall? How many inches of shelving are you left with? How thick are the shelves?

Yes, almost all of it.  They are 1/8" stainless braided cables rated at 1800 pounds each.  You could essentially hang a  couple pickup trucks on the wall.

They are not technically “attached” to the shelves.  They pass through the shelves and I engineered a little trick underneath so that the shelves can rest upon what’s going on under there.  Here’s a detail shot of one passing through some shelves:

Their is a 3/4" cleat attached to the battens and the rear of the shelf rests upon (and is nailed into) it.  So, even though each shelf has 3/4" of support at the rear, it only appears to sink into the wall 1/4" (the inset of each batten). Â

11.5" of useful shelf space.

3/4" but they look thicker due to the facing.

Thanks. Very eloquent design. I’m trying to figure out an improved storage option for my comics collection and I really like the aesthetic of this.

I don’t think you can own too many but I know what you mean.

I took my 1999 Europe, 2001 Pacific, 2004 Revised, 1942, 1942 2nd edition, and 1941 and put them into Artbins. Like you, I left specific campaign, global, and AA50th in their boxes.